Dungeons and Ponies Side Stories: A Hero Comes Home
by BemnalTheFallen
Summary: This is the first in a series of single chapter side stories set in the medieval fantasy world of my story Dungeons and Ponies. Grotimnos sacrificed himself to save the other heroes when pursuing the Staff of Wishing, but what happened to him when the Retributive Strike from his Staff of Power obliterated him? He went to a place beyond time and death. And eventually, he came home.


Dungeons and Ponies Side Stories: A Hero Comes Home

This is the first in a series of single chapter side stories set in the medieval fantasy world of my story Dungeons and Ponies. Grotimnos sacrificed himself to save the other heroes when pursuing the Staff of Wishing, but what happened to him when the Retributive Strike from his Staff of Power obliterated him? He went to a place beyond time and death. And eventually, he came home.

***DISCLAIMER***

I do not own My Little Pony Friendship is Magic nor do I have any aphiliations with it, its producers, or its benifactors. I do not make any money from this fanficiton. This is a fan made story created purely for entertainment purposes. Please support the official release.

***DISCLAIMER***

*song, a Hero Comes Home; Alan Silvestri - Idina Menzel-*

***********************WARNING*******************

Violence/Gore.

***********************WARNING*********************

A Hero Comes Home

Grotimnos saw darkness... only darkness; no hot, no cold, no here, no there... just... darkness... nothingness...

He couldn't sense his body; all was still like the stagnet pond in a forest; albiet a dark and lifeless forest. For there was no peace here. No, not a peaceful darkness, not a peacefull silence, this was... this was... disturbing...

It was like a constant shadow of penumbra consuming his soul; a continuous existential crisis of boredom, like being forced to stare at a blank wall with nothing to do; not even a clock to remind you that only one minute has passed. A darkness with no peace; just a constant awareness of empy bleak unfulfuilled tients and... boredome... nothingness...

And then, panick began to set in; there was no escape from this darkness, from this nothingness...

There was nothing... but this... this... tartarus... this endless void of nothing; no body, no feeling, no thoughts... just nothing... eternal, ever lasting, stagnet. Silent.

Just... darkness...

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Hm?

-e

What...

...

...

-me

...

...

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-ome

what is that... a voice?

-ays a- home

... that... sound... familiar... familar? What is familiar? What does it mean to have familiarity... to have... remembrance... yes... remembrance...

Rememberance... Remember.

...

...

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Remember...

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REMEMBER!

-ro comes home.

...

...

-lways a hero comes home.

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Sweetie Belle...

Music... Sweetie Belle... Bard... music...

And all at once, Grotimnos mind exploded in the most unpleasant meaning. A lifetime of memories were forced into his head; so much pressure, so much... too much,. too much at once; he wanted it to end; he wanted to squish his head like a melon to make the pressure stop.

The darkness... at least there wasn't pain... this... this was horrible. Make it stop...

...

Make it stop...

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...

Please...

...

...

But that sound... that voice... it continued calling... it refused to let him be. Who's voice.. oh ya... Sweetie Belle... who... who is...

And finally, the memories had clarity. Structure, order; understanding and comprehention were established, he knew... he knew who Sweetie Belle was, he knew who he himself was... he remembered. Clearly now. Grotimnos, the Necromancer... half Changeling, half Unicorn...

Yes... he was Grotimnos.

And he was... dead...

Oh right...

"_Mieth din..._"(I died) Grotimnos whispered through lips of a non existent mouth... yes... for he was dead; he had no body. he spoke not in words, but thought... thoughts of the most primal form; thoughts of the ancient language, the speak of life and death, the Arcane Language itself.

"_Paal fik Mieth?_"(where am I?) Grotimnos could sense... feel.. remember... where... where... he needed to do something in order to ascertain his current location; but... what was it?..

...

...

"_Mieth nor ahrk mu_"(I need to see) Grotmnis realized... he needed to see.. to look around... yes, he needed to observe!

And there it was, he had eyes; the darkness was gone; in its place was something... horrifying to say the least, a giant serpant; larger than anything he'd ever seen was coiled around him; though he had no body to hold, he felt constricted by the creature; its scales pitch black and missing flesh here and there with exposed rotting muscles and ribs; its head the most disturbing; large red eyes with black slits peering into his conciousness, and lips torn away revealing herbavoiris teeth which idly grinded and chattered.

He recognized this creature... a Primordial Serpant... But... that could only mean... he...

He was beyond the veil of the mortal world... the Primordial Serpants resided only in an unnatural place where life and death held no meaning; time was irrelavant and space was malleable, easily manipulated by thought and will.

This was... a forbidden place... a wrong place... even the gods had little control over this... universe? Dimension? Nopony really knew much about this existence; bits and pieces of it existed in legends and stories but only as a small footnote. This... this place... nopony knew what it was like, how to get there, how to get back... what creatures resided here...

This... this was... this was wrong... not right... not evil, not good, those held no meaning here... this place just... didn't belong in reality.

He needed to... to do something... he could see but he couldn't quite... quite what? Hear! He needed to hear... and then he heard it; a bloodcurtling cacaphony of wailing screams that scorched his mind; if he had ears they would have folded back, if he had a stomach it would have turned.

But he heard something else... a voice... Sweetie's voice... Sweetie Belle.

*Out of the mist of historrrrry He'll come again Saiiiling on ships across the sea To a wounded Naaaaation...*

Sweetie Belle... her angelic Bard's voice... a soothing calm fell around Grotimnos.. a warmth... yes... warm... hot and cold... feeling... he could feel... and there it was; he had a body again. And if he had a body, he could fight.

With a roar of his Lich form, he unleashed a burst of death magic in an icy rapture that stung the Primordial Serpant causing him to lose grip on the Necromancer, Grotimnos fell through the darkness; an abyss that led into a light; and through that light, he fell into a sky, all around him Harpies swam through the clouds like water, he fell and felll through an eternal blue sky with puffy clouds.

*Signs of a savioooour, like fire on the waaaterrrrr, it's what we prayed for, one of ouuuur oooowwwwnnnn!*

The blue sky seemed too peaceful and decadent in beauty to exist within this... wrong place...

And then the skies were gone; a town below him, wide and stretching far beyond his sight; and through it all, Sweetie Belle's voice continued to give him a focus, a rock to keep him grounded from the unreal aetherius of this unnatural place that threatened to sink its talons into his rotted flesh and yank him back into the oblivion of nothingness.

*Juuuuust wait Though wide he may roaaaammm Allllwaaaaays, A hero comes hoooome Heeeee gooooeeeees where nopony has gooooone Buuuuut alllllwaaaayyyys, A hero comes hoooome*

The city's center square held shapes of ponies, with no details, just black silohuettes as the city was shrouded in twilight. The faces of the ponies therein were concealed by white masks that were dull and lifeless.

The ground opened up before Grotinos as his body fell through into a giant chasm that delved deep into the planet; only for it to open up at the botom and for him to pour through another sky of fire; the clouds of lava burned around him until he landed on a platform of cinders.

His body landed softly on the obsidian glass floor; the small trickles of lava surrounding him died out; and the light faded as darkness fell around him.

*Deep in the heaaaart of darrrrkness sparks A dream of liiiight Surrounded by hopelessness He finds the will to fiiiiight*

Grotimnos' body filled with the courage of a warrior as hope flashed across his frame... there was... he didn't know how or why he knew this but... there was a way out... there was a way back home... he turned around and saw a Dark Soul before him leeching the light from the fading embers around him.

The Dark Soul held a mighty Great Scythe that sliced through the air nearly taking Grotimnos' head off with it; Grotimnos ducked under and charged the Dark Soul with his own War Scythe and slashed off the Dark Soul's arm spurting out a black blood that melted the obsidian ground beneath their hooves.

*There's no surrender! Always remember It doesn't ennnnd here We're not alooooone Juuuust wait Though wide he may roam Alwaaaays A hero comes home Heeeee goes where no one has gone But alllllways A hero comes home And he will come back on the crimson tide, Dead or alive And even though we know the bridge has burned He will return! He will returrrrnnn!*

The battle raged and raged; the Dark Soul wielding such destructive spells that Grotimnos had never fathomed before; even the grimoire of Rastlin the Red held not the chaotic power that was being unleashed upon his visage at this moment.

Around them, the landscape aged a thousand years and civilizations rose and fell in the span of moments. With each strike of the enemy's scythe, Grotimnos' hearing grew more dim and Sweetie's voice sounded further away... quiet... dark... empty... nothi- "_DDRRRRAAAAXXX!"(NO) _Grotimnos roared and latched his skelatal hands around the Dark Soul's throat, and with a ravenous animalistic vigor, he throttled the Pyromancer and began tearing the pony's face away with his Lich's teeth; like a beast cornered, he fought with everything he had resorting to the most barbaric methods of combat, and soon he tore the Dark Soul apart limb from limb.

Grotimnos staggered back panting despite having no lungs, he felt tired... weary...

Sweetie's voice was only bearly audible now.

*Just waaaait Though wide he may roam Alwaaaaays A hero comes home! Heeeee knows of places unknowwwwwn Alwwwwways A hero comes hooooome*

Yes... the voice... focus on the voice...

Grotimnos stumbled through the darkness; staggering and limbing as his severely damaged body began to fall apart; the Dark Soul had delt some massive damage to him throughout the fight; and even in his mighty Lich form he wasn't indestructible.

For years he stumbled along the black obsidian and orange twilight skies. The clear crystal sea of silver glass; the shrieks of amythest ravens devoured by Dragons of the Void.

And eventually, he fell off the edge of the earth into the pitch black abyss of space; the stars rushing past an incomprehensible speeds.

*Someday they'll carve in stone "The hero comes home"*

He saw it... the light... the piercing light at the end of the dark tunnel; he rushed for it; there were others... Vampires, Daemns, other Liches, Dark Gods, so many things... all rushing for the light, all rushing for a chance to go home. For a chance to escape this... place, this death, this tartarus, this purgatory; so close! THE LIGHT! GO FOR THE LIGHT!

The closer he got, the louder Sweetie's voice grew.

*Heeee goes and comes back alone But allllwwwwwways A hero comes hoooome*

Primordial Serpants appeared from the darkness and latched their teeth onto the shadows of the ancient dark being's shadows cast by the light; one by one, elder Vampires, ancient Liches, and elder things of the Dark Gods were devoured through their shades.

For one of the few rare moments in Grotimnos' existence... he was afraid. Power meant nothing here; gods and demons, elder dark beings... they were nothing here but food for the Primordial Serpants. Grotimnos sprinted on his destroyed legs, panick overtaking him, the light from the tunnel seared his necromantic flesh but he cared not.

A Primordial Serpant caught hold of his shadow, he yelped and struggled, black tears filling his empty eye sockets.

Images of Sweetie Belle flooded his mind; the feeling of need, the need to return home, to see her again, to keep fighting! TO LIVE! FIGHT! SURVIVE!"

"_MIEN FIK KRAAS ORLAIN DIIL VIIRAAK!"(I AM NOT GOING TO DIE HERE!)_

Sweetie Belle's voice exploded in his head; her singing became the only existence in his universe; he stretched imposibly towards the light even as the bones of his skelatal hand began to degrade and fade away.

Just... a little... further...

*Just wait Though wide he may roam, Allllways A HERO COMES HOOOOME!*

The light... so... close...

One last thought passed through his mind before the Primordial Serpant devoured him... but... he could not... remember what that thought was.

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All was dark.

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Ten Years Later after the battle for the Staff of Wishing...

Somewhere in the village of Kénalvane...

Ponies walked about the desert city going about their normal lives.. or what had become their normal lives in these hard times since... _he_ began taking over...

Suddenly an electric spark caught everypony's attention, they all turned towards the center of town to see an explosion of light ending with a pony appearing out of nowhere... or rather... an undead mockery of a pony.

"L-L-L-LIIIIIICHHH!" somepony screamed, everypony panicked and ran about like decapitated chickens.

Grotimnos groaned, "ughhh... wh-wha?" he looked around, "huh... well methinks the Retributive Strike didn't kill Us... that's good... he looked inside his own mind... not a trace of Rastlin... huh... perhaps his conciousness wasn't as pitied by the Staff of Power's explosion?

Either way, Grotimnos was alive and no longer in danger of his soul being overrun so check and check.

"Now... where in Tartarus are We?" he looked around, it looked like one of the desert cities in Ébány... so... he was still on the planet Equis... that's good... so that's _where_ he was... but what about _when_?

Grotimnos teleported next to a random pony who squeaked and tried to flee only for Grotimnos to grab his skull and peer into his mind.

The spell put things into perspective for him, a clock cycling forward with a calender droping pages until it showed that ten years had past.

Then, images of a bipedal creature like a pony but with a flat face lacking fur and wearing a hooded robe appeared along with words like 'psion' 'human' and 'Rizo' playing over and over again in his head. Then it showed a map of the entire planet with a small picture of this 'Rizo' character in the north eastern section of Ébány; a black fire spred out in all directions from his picture and burned across all of Ébány and rossed over into Equestria, Griffonia, and the Crystal Kingdom.

More images, these ones of plague, strange creatures, more of these 'humans' and ponies falling into fits of madness.

What's more, images of strange beasts crawling out from the oceans onto the world and the names 'Deep Ones' and 'Great Old Ones' kept popping up.

The vision ended and the pony fell to the ground unconcious.

"Huh..." Grotimnos rubbed his chin, "Intruiging..."

"OH what's all the fuss about?"

Grotimnos froze, he rocognized that voice... no... it couldn't...

The Lich turned around to face none other than- "SWEETIE BELLE?!"

The Bard froze in place and gawked, "G-Grotimnos?!" she squeked.

The Bard tackled the Lich to the ground and nearly crushed his torso in the tightest hug he'd ever experienced.

Grotimnos' mind flickered with hidden images and sounds... seeing Sweetie Belle... he... felt like he forgot somehting... something important... something... there was the Staff of Wishing... he sacrificed himself then... then... what? There was... darkness... and then... he woke up here... but...

...

...

Grotimnos felt as if there should be more in his memories but he just couldn't... quite... no... it was gone... whatever he was trying to remember was gone. And within moments he forgot that he was even trying to remember something in the first place. He looked down to Sweetie Belle's beautiful face; even now as a middle aged mare she still looked as beautiful as ever.

It... It was nice to be home again.

*_Heeee goooess... where nopony has gooone... but allllwaayyyyyyys... a hero comes hoooome.*_

_/_

Feel free to suggest any other of the Dungeons and Ponies characters to be featured with their own side story.


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